Gilmore Girls: The Life and Times
by THE STAR FREEDOM
Summary: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR A YEAR IN THE LIFE. Picks up directly after the end of the revival and follows Rory and Lorelai, our Gilmore Girls. [Literati]
1. The Next Four Words

**THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR GILMORE GIRLS, A YEAR IN THE LIFE. Please, please, please do not continue reading if you don't want to read spoilers for this series. (Trust me, you don't.)  
**

 **A/N: Normally, I'm a strictly "post a short note at the end" kind of person, but I just wanted to re-clarify a few things. This picks up immediately after the last four words of _Year in the Life_ as in the _next_ four words. This is completely my take on it, and honestly, I haven't had this much fun writing two characters as I have writing these two. This is a long-term Jess/Rory, so if you have a problem with that, you can leave. This first chapter is short because I really just wanted to get something out there. If you have any comments/questions/concerns please share them with me! I love feedback, it means your reading! **

* * *

ONE

"Pregnant?" Lorelai looked at her daughter. Beautiful, smart, talented Rory. Pregnant Rory. Soon-to-be-mother Rory.

"Yes."

"You're sure?" Rory with so many wide open doors and the biggest heart. The best thing that had come out of her entire life, Rory.

"Five tests and a doctor's visit sure, so I'd say pretty sure."

Speechless. Had this ever happened in her entire life? Very, very few times had this happened. _Goddammit, Lorelai, say something._ "We're here for whatever you need. I'm here. If you want to stay here, I support you; if you want to move out, I support you; whatever you decide, I'm with you every step of the way, kid." Be what she didn't have when she was pregnant. "And if you want me to have nothing to do with it, I support that too. This is entirely up to you."

Rory reached out and grabbed her mom's hand, not filled with urgency but just for reassurance—to make sure that there was still a real, live person next to her and to feel her mother's comfort. They sat in silence, looking at people move along the streets of Stars Hollow from the steps of the gazebo.

Deciding what to say and what to not, to tell her everything, to shut her out completely?

"I'm going to need all the help I can get because I don't want Logan involved in this." One name. A split second decision to say his name and then to tell her mother that she had grown up and moved on from marriage wrecking pregnancies. She'd seen the quick to the aisle Christopher and Sherrie . . . and how poorly that had turned out for everyone involved. Logan would do the same, leaving everyone—including Odette—in pieces. Broken and stomped-on pieces.

"Wow, so it's definitely Logan then?"

"One hundred percent."

"Are you going to tell him, then? Not to butt in where I don't belong," Lorelai looked over to her daughter, who shrugged as a gesture to continue, "but Anna didn't tell Luke about April and she hunted him down. You knew Christopher. I just wanted to raise you by myself."

"To be fair, April could have had one of three dads, and she hunted down all three to see which was her real father."

"The point still remains that these things come out of the woodwork eventually. Besides, you wouldn't be the woman you are today if Christopher hadn't been at least present in your life."

Rory bit cheek, so the words "You're right" came out mostly mumbled. A beat of silence followed before she continued, "But this is different. This isn't you and Dad; we're not sixteen with parents that want us to get married before the baby comes. Logan showed up in Stars Hollow a couple weeks ago and we had the perfect goodbye, which I know you're going to say doesn't exist, but that's what it was. It was wonderful and amiable, and we all said goodbye. I don't want to mess that up right now because if I do, he'll come running back no matter what I say or how much I ask him not to.

"If it comes up, so be it. It comes up. It'll come up either way. But this child will have me and you and Luke. Luke was practically a dad to me, and I'm sure that he'll treat this baby the same way he treated me, if not better."

With a few soft-spoken words, Lorelai urged her daughter to come back to the house. They had a wedding to get ready for, after all. As they walked down the sidewalk, they chatted about flash mobs and hot dog stands, Lorelai's arm wrapped around Rory's shoulder, Rory's head tucked into her mother's shoulder.

* * *

"So," Jess swung up behind Rory and slid into the chair next to her at an empty table, "you and your mom were up incredibly early this morning walking around." He placed two drinks on the table and pushed one glass of scotch towards her, which she took and just swirled in its glass. "Were you saying goodbye or do you think you're going to stay in Stars Hollow for a while? Work at the Gazette, write your book?"

"I'd need to find real work eventually, but for now I think I'll stay here with Mom and write. It's probably best not to stray far from the source material."

"Not a bad idea," Jess lifted his glass to the woman next to him and then downed the smooth liquid. Rory raised her glass with Jess but just set it back on the table. "You gonna drink that?"

Shaking her head, she nudged the glass towards Jess. "I want to remember every moment of tonight," a smile crossed over her face as she looked around at the lights lighting up the night around them, people dancing and talking all around, "you're not going back tonight, right? You've had a lot to drink."

"No," the monosyllabic word drew out from his lips wrapped in a scoff, "Luke was about two steps away from a heart attack when he started thinking about leaving Caesar alone with the diner for a week and a half, so I offered to stay here for a bit and help out."

"You? Helping at the diner?"

"I'm as shocked with myself as you are."

"Where are you staying?"

"Mom and T.J. have a handful of really great handful of couches."

"A handful?"

"Don't ask," Jess's smile quirked up at one side as he finished off the rest of Rory's drink.

"That's ridiculous, we have a perfectly good bed at our house. I'm sure Luke would insist as well, but I know better than to assume you will ask him." Jess put his hand up to protest some more, but Rory interrupted him before he could start, "No, I insist, you'll stay with me. Otherwise, I won't let you read the first three chapters of my book."

"How did you-"

"I know you, Jess," Rory smiled and stood, running one hand over the least hideous bridesmaid gown in the world and offering the other to him, "I'm also going to make you dance with me before I let you read it." He shook his head as he stood, not taking her hand. "C'mon we can laugh at Kirk, make it more fun for ya."

He swung his arm around her shoulder, a place it hadn't been in over a decade, but still it felt natural. "Who brings a pig to a wedding anyway?"

* * *

 **I hope you all liked it! This is my first time onto this site in a while, but I couldn't resist. Not with Rory and Jess and the damn way that show ended. I needed more. I am writing more for me and for you, if you want to read it.**

 **Talk to you soon!**

 **x Star**


	2. Responsibilities and Adulthood

TWO

"You can take Mom's bed upstairs; the bathroom is just the next door down."

Jess walked up the first few steps of the stairs onto the little landing, leaning on the railing to look down at Rory. "Thanks for doing this, Rory, you didn't have to."

"I did have to. It's almost two in the morning. Liz and T.J. left the wedding an hour into the reception. You would have woken them up with your loud, drunken footsteps." Jess shrugged, a smile on his face all the while. "Go to sleep, I'm sure Luke left some clothes that you'll fit into. You can grab your stuff from your mom's later after you've slept this off."

Rory turned to rifle through the mail on the table just across from the stairs. When she looked back, Jess had already slumped over the railing. With a sigh, she assessed the situation: stairs, half-asleep Jess, mostly-drunk Jess, couch. Couch was by far the best and most practical option, so Rory met Jess on the landing and essentially dragged him down the few steps and put him horizontally onto the couch. She grabbed the blanket on the back of the couch and draped it over him.

Thinking ahead, Rory immediately went into her own room and set her alarm for 5:00 with an accompanying three alarms on her phone. Jess would be in no place to open the diner in three hours. Neither would Rory, but she'd be in a better place than he would. She quietly made her way through the house underneath the noise of Jess's snores and gathered a few things to put on the coffee table for the morning: a flannel and some jeans of Luke's, a glass of water, the bottle of aspirin, and a note telling him she opened the diner for him and would appreciate his presence at the diner as soon as humanly possible because there's only so much coffee can do for a girl.

* * *

 _Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, ahhh._ Rory had known actually putting the coffee grounds into the machine last night had been a good idea. There had been no chance of a decent cup otherwise. She scooted across the kitchen with her coffee and pop-tarts to sit at the table. After a few minutes of silently eating and drinking, there was a ringing from the other room. Mug of coffee in hand, Rory stood and walked towards the living room, where the ringing grew louder. There was an abrupt end to Jess's snoring followed by a soft curse.

"What could you possibly be doing up right now?" Jess spoke into the cell phone at his ear. Rory almost dropped her mug in shock as she took in the sight of him with a cell phone, but she held tight to it as she leaned against the archway leading into the living room. Something resembling a smile made its way onto his face as he sat up and glanced at the coffee table. "So, you're telling me that your 'body clock' woke you up at 5AM the first day of your honeymoon and your first thought was to make sure I was awake?" Jess took the pills and chugged the glass of water as he listened into the phone. "Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever you say, Luke. I'm on my way to the diner right now, yes."

The phone shifted from his hand to between his ear and shoulder as he glanced at the note and then, finally, to Rory. He held up the note with an accusational glance and a raised eyebrow. "Go back to sleep," he whispered, covering the speaker gently as he spoke. All she could really think to do was give a small smile before turning to go back to her room, or at least the kitchen.

"Rory," she turned at the mention of her name, "Yeah, I was staying at Mom's, but it was late when we left the wedding, she didn't want me to wake them. Look, if it makes you uncom—okay, okay, don't say I didn't tell you." Realizing that he wasn't actually talking to her, Rory turned back around, laying her nearly finished mug on the kitchen table before returning to bed, where she wrapped herself in the warm bedsheets.

Jess changed in the downstairs bathroom after finally ending the call with Luke. Double checking that he hadn't left the key to the in the pockets of his suit from the night before, he rinsed out the mug on the table and then headed for the diner. When the diner was practically empty an hour after opening, he told Caesar he'd be out for a minute, and he grabbed his things from his mom's, told her the short, mostly true version of the story and stashed his duffel on the stairs to the nearly empty office space that had been his home for a short time.

A few hours later, he saw Rory walking towards the diner. He went ahead and pulled out a clean cup from behind him. When he turned around, she was there, sitting at the counter with that stupid, gorgeous smile on her face.

"So when did you get a cell phone?"

"What?" Jess asked as he began pouring her coffee.

"A cell phone. This morning, Luke called you on a cell phone. You've always been anti-cell phone, never believed in them. What changed?"

"What changed is that Luke bought this one for me three years ago for my birthday. I kept moving from place to place. He got tired of unanswered letters, emails and eventually quit keeping up with all my new numbers. Apparently, this is a convenient way to contact someone."

"I have heard that."

"So, you weren't planning on waking me up to open the diner?"

"Well-" Rory started to talk, but quit to take a drink of her coffee, "I've never seen someone bounce back this quickly from as many scotches as you had last night. I didn't really think you would be up and moving this soon."

"It's almost noon."

"And you practically drank an entire bottle last night."

"Yet you're the one who is just now up. And you're ordering what? Pancakes? Eggs?'

"Both. What kind of question is that?" Jess shook his head, his mouth quirked up into a smile, before he turned to tell the order to Caesar. "So how are you able to just stay in Stars Hollow for two weeks? What happened to Truncheon?"

It wasn't until the words actually left her mouth that she realized how long it had been since she's actually talked to Jess. Not just an introduction or a short talk about current events, like at the wedding, but an actual conversation where they could talk about their lives and the details therein.

"Ah, those are two different questions," Jess leaned on his forearms across the counter from Rory. "As for Truncheon, it still exists, I just don't work there anymore. I left about five years ago and got a job at a bigger—but still small—publishing house in New York." He grabbed a towel from under the counter and began wiping down the place where a man had just left. "I was there up until a couple of weeks ago."

"What happened? What are you doing now?"

"Don't get excited," Jess pointed to Rory, his face purposefully emotionless. Before he continued talking, Rory's felt her face drop. She placed the half-empty mug of coffee down on the counter and made an effort to lift her expression back to an _I am very interested in what you are telling me_ expression rather than the _I just realized that I need to lower my caffeine intake; dear god, this baby will kill me with a lack of coffee_ look that had made its way onto her face.

"A guy that I worked with at Truncheon, Chris, we've been talking for years about starting our own place, kinda from the ground up. We just bought a property in Brooklyn; there's a few weeks of renovations ahead of us. They're having to fumigate the entire building, but after that, it's ours to run."

A smile had been spreading over her face while Jess had been speaking. His own publishing house. A thing that was his, that he had built. "That's amazing!"

"It's not much, just a small building. Chris is there now with a few people that we're thinking to hire, and a few writers who don't mind getting paid practically nothing to get their work published," he grabbed a couple of menus after the bell above the entrance rang, announcing the entrance of two people that Rory didn't recognize. "Now, if you don't mind, I need to work. You better keep writing or I'll never be able to publish that book of yours."

* * *

 **A/N: _Oh my god, thank you!_ This is the best response I've ever gotten to a story, and I know it's because it's topical but 1.8K views, 150 followers, 42 favorites, and 21 reviews is the most response I've ever gotten to a story ever on this site so thank you. I will reply to each one that has a profile, just give me some time because, frankly, I'm overwhelmed with the love and support! Additionally, sorry if there are some grammatical errors in this. I really wanted to get something out to y'all as a thank you for giving me such love for this already. _  
_**

 **Again, this is a bit of a short chapter, but now we're starting to explore what Jess is doing and has been doing for the past decade. He deserved at least a scene like Dean did in the revival, but _apparently_ staring in a different TV show is a lot of work. (: Anyway, this is the scene that we deserved in the revival, not a "nothing permanent" statement over drinks in the Gazette. That was not enough for me.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed this. Review, favorite, follow if you so wish. I love any and all feedback.**

 **Talk to you soon!**

 **x Star**


	3. Elena Ferrante

THREE

Rory would say that she was working diligently on this week's Gazette to get the layout finished early, but instead, her mind was a million places and none of them were the Gazette.

 _Can I have coffee while I'm pregnant?_

 _Should I start taking vitamins? Pregnant people always go on and on about something-or-other vitamins._

 _I need a job that actually pays me something because, my god, there are so many things I'll need to buy for the baby._

 _When do I tell people in the town?_

 _Should I drive out to Hartford to get this stuff? If I go in town, people will know that I'm pregnant. I mean, they'll_ know _, and it's just because Ms. Patty will make sure that everyone knows._

 _Maybe I should just call Mom._

 _But she's on her honeymoon. She won't want me to call._

 _Also, I have no money to buy any of this. I can't even afford to buy myself new underwear._

 _I don't have a car either, and my license is expired. God help me._

 _Maybe I could ask Jess . . . no, no, no._

 _Wait—Luke knows. I mean, he has to know. Mom wouldn't be able to keep something like this from him. What if he told Jess? Even if it was an accident?_

 _Calm down, Rory. Breathe. Breathe. Now finish putting together this damn paper, then you can go home._

So she did.

She took a breath. Then another. Wiping away the cobwebs in her mind and shoving everything pregnancy related into a little box, for now, she finally started working on the Gazette. Around midday, a majority of the paper was finished, and the file at the forefront of Rory's laptop was the _Gilmore Girls_ document. Keys were furiously forming the words to chapter four, which was proving difficult to really get into. She was frustrated with stupid decisions she'd made, and all she wanted to do was to go back and change them.

The thought had come into her head when first starting to go Ferrante-style on the book. Change everyone's names, change slight details, and give herself a pseudonym. But then it wouldn't be _Gilmore Girls,_ and it wouldn't really be _her_ story if she changed little facts here and there to make herself or others more likable. They weren't characters. They were, they are, people.

To go back and to fix every relationship, to tie them off with pretty bows, to gloss over the fact that Dean got really possessive of her at the end of their relationship, to change the fact that she had ended Dean's first marriage. Yes, now he's happily married with kids and another on the way, and without Lindsay, he never would have found Jenny. Putting all of that aside, it was a wretched thing, and she's always wanted to reach back into her life and tweak it.

Well, not always but definitely more recently.

* * *

By the time Jess had closed the diner and gotten back to the Gilmore house last night, Rory was asleep. Her door was open, _Troubling Love_ open next to her, and there was an empty bag of tater tots at the top of the trash and a box of Pop Tarts open on the kitchen table. So tonight, he had Caesar prepare extras of all the classic Gilmore foods and grabbed some things from the back, loading them all into a box to take over to her.

"Hey Caesar, can you close tonight?" Jess walked back to the kitchen. The diner was relatively empty, only a few people eating dinner and some chatting while deciding what to order.

There was another cook in the back, so Caesar turned, his hair flipping around with him. Jess bit back a laugh as he said, "No problem! I got this!"

"See you tomorrow, then," Jess rounded out of the kitchen and out of the diner, picking up the box on his way.

He made the trip an extra couple of minutes longer to walk past the Gazette, peaking in to see if Rory had indeed gone home for the day, and it appeared as such because she wasn't at her desk. But when he got back to the house, it was empty. He called for her, no answer, so he put the food on the table and turned to her door. He knocked, no answer, and he opened it, no Rory. He called out again, louder, still no answer.

If he had her number, he would have called her. So much for convenient.

Briefly, he looked around the kitchen and the living room for a note, but there was nothing. Her laptop was sitting, closed, on the coffee table. She'd been home.

He paused for a moment, just a moment, and then he was out of the house, walking through town as fast as he could without looking crazy. He knew exactly where she was. The lake. If he knew Rory like he thought he did, that's where she'd be. She'd been _off_ recently, not quite herself. It wasn't that she was different from who she was ten years ago, it was that she was different from the person she'd been when he'd visited briefly over the summer and when he'd stayed at the Gilmore house for the few days before the wedding.

"Rory," she was sitting with her legs crossed underneath her at the side of the bridge; it never had been repaired.

"Jess," she looked up but didn't stand, "how did you find me?"

"Lucky guess." Jess sat down next to her, his feet dangling off the edge. "What's up?"

Nothing. Silence hung between them for a few minutes as Rory stared into the lake and Jess stared at Rory, watching her fiddle with the ends of her shirt.

He'd think she was crazy. He'd get overwhelmed and then it would be awkward.

No. No, it wouldn't. It'd never been awkward, not even when it was.

"I'm a horrible person." Way to start off easy, Rory.

"No, you're not, you're-"

"No, Jess, I am. I'm horrible. Up until a month ago, I've been sleeping with Logan, who by the way is engaged to a perfectly lovely and boring, but very respectable lady from France. I spent the entirety of my relationship with Paul forgetting about him and cheating on him with another man. And now," Rory bent her head to her chest to let out a laugh to distract herself from the tears that were welling up in her eyes, "and now, I'm pregnant with Logan's child, and I'm too scared to tell him because I'm worried that I'm going to ruin a perfectly fine marriage before it even starts. What's worse, I can't even muster up the courage to call my mom and ask her about any of this because she's on her honeymoon, and she shouldn't be worrying about me and how clueless I am about everything when she should be having the time of her life with Luke."

Rory caught her breath. "And that's enough to drive a person crazy, but there's more because I still don't have a real job with a salary so I can't pay for any of the stuff that I probably will need for the baby, not to mention the hospital visits. If I told Logan, he'd just toss money at me and pay for all of it, but I don't want that. And I don't want Mom to feel like she has to pay for this because this is my baby and I should be paying for the expenses that go along with it. I'm 32 goddammit and I should be paying for my own things, but I can't."

When she stopped to breathe normally for a few seconds and then bite her lip, Jess figured she was done and piped in, "Did Longbottom get paid?"

"Who?"

"Gazette guy, Longbottom, Flatbottom, something-bottom. Before he died and you took over, did he get paid?"

"I think so, why?"

Jess raised an eyebrow at her when she turned to him, "Really?" Rory shrugged. "Have you thought of asking Taylor about getting paid?"

"Oh," Rory's shoulders slumped as she said it. Clearly, this was never a thought that had crossed her mind. Jess rolled his eyes at her naiveté, stopping the shaking of his head with a hand on his forehead.

"Bring it up to him. With all the money that he's probably saved from not paying you for this long, he should be more than able to afford it."

"So not only am I horrible, but I'm also an idiot."

"You're not an idiot," Jess stood up and offered Rory a hand to help her stand up, should she want it. She did. "Just overwhelmed. Now c'mon, I brought real food back from the diner. I think all you've eaten in the last 24 hours has been tater-tots and Pop Tarts."

* * *

 **A/N: Whew. That took a bit longer to get up, but it's the end of the semester so everything is really starting to pile up. I have finals starting next week, so sorry if updates are a little slow. Just bear with me for a couple more weeks before Winter Break, when I'm sure there will be updates far more often. Again, I want to thank all of you for the incredible responses you've given me. That and my playlist of Literati edits on YouTube have really been pushing me through this chapter. I'm struggling with writing Rory a bit. She's difficult. There's still more to get into with Jess, but it didn't feel right yet.**

 **As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Review, favorite, and follow if ya want!**

 **Talk to you soon.**

 **x Star**


	4. Men Without Women, Women Without Men

FOUR

Why hadn't he been able to say anything? She'd been right there. In fact, they'd sat next to each other for hours after coming back from the lake, eating, talking, Rory complaining about _Almost Famous—_ the movie Jess had insisted on watching—but watching it anyway. He could feel it in his chest, his heart beating out the words to his brain _tell her, dammit, by god, just ask her._ But he couldn't because the last time he'd asked her to come to New York with him, she'd shot him down.

Instead, when conversation died down, and they'd cleaned up, putting the extra food in the fridge, Jess told Rory that he was headed to bed. He changed, he sat on the bed, he tried to read, he couldn't focus, he walked to the door, he stopped. He turned around. He did it all over again. For nearly six hours. He turned off the alarm on his phone. He changed again. He finally opened the door.

* * *

Why couldn't she do it? Taylor was right there. In fact, she'd had about twenty minutes to interrupt him or wait for a breath and ask him, but every time that she was about to do it, there was a twist in her gut. Something telling her _no, not now, not today._

Instead, she'd halfway listened to him complain about something or other that he would probably discuss tomorrow at the town meeting. She bid Taylor goodbye, she started to walk home. _Home._ The place she was raised. The place she left and then came back to time and time again. Middle of nowhere, go-nowhere Stars Hollow. The town where there's nothing to do, nowhere to go, and the 24-hour mini-mart closes at 7:00.

Her hand hovered above the front door handle, but she couldn't. Couldn't go in, couldn't force herself to go back to the comfortable life she'd always known.

Couldn't force a child to be subject to constant judgment and stares. _Just like her mother,_ they'd say. _It's a shame. She was really going places, that one. You know she went to Yale?_

She turned and sunk onto the front steps as the words plunged deeper into her chest.

 _If anyone would be the one to leave this town, I'd 've said her. But she came back, started working at the Gazette. Saved our little paper, that one._

If she left, the Gazette would go with her. No one would pick it up after her because no one else would know how to run a paper. She stood. She turned. She opened the door.

She grabbed a sheet of paper, a pen, and a book and took them back to the front steps. All of the big decisions in her life had been made with a pro and con list. Why should leaving Stars Hollow be any different? So that's what she wrote at the top of the paper, _Leaving Stars Hollow,_ and she drew a line straight down the middle. Pro on the left. Con on the right.

She sat on the steps until she had exhausted every possible option, every possible response to this thought of leaving her home. And, in the end, the pros outweighed the cons. She may not have a place to live, but who cares? She could figure it out.

* * *

"I wasn't planning on calling you again, really."

"But you still did, Ace, what is it?"

"You're happy with Odette, right?" She heard him sigh on the other end of the phone, and she knew what was coming next—a _We've talked about this, Ace—_ so she kept talking before he could respond. "Logan, I know we've had this discussion, we've had our parting note, but I need to hear you say it."

"Yes, I'm happy with Odette," Rory had been pacing, but she stopped when she heard him say this; she braced herself on the railing.

She had to do this. Finish it. Cut off all the loose ends. A do-over is only a do-over if the ends are tied up.

"I need to you remember that when I tell you this, okay?"

"Ace-" he sounded worried. Probably not a bad idea.

"Now, you also need to remember everything else I said to you. That I hope you and Odette are happy together, that you stay happy, have kids, get married, build a life."

"Rory."

"I'm pregnant, but I don't want your money or your marriage to break because of this." Silence fell between the two for a minute as Rory found the words to say next, or rather, found the strength to say the words, "I want to raise it alone. You can have phone calls and visits if you want, but I don't want it to have the same fate, same constraints that you did. The idea of being the Huntzberger heir before it's even born is too much for anyone."

"It was too much for me, it _is_ too much for me," Logan rolled the idea over and over in his head. _A baby._ "You know that better than anyone."

Rory smiled a little. He wasn't fighting her on it, she could hear it in his voice. "That's why I want to raise it by myself."

There was a deep breath on the other end of the phone. "You'll keep me updated, right?"

"Of course, I could call you every week if that's what you wanted."

"Sounds like a good exchange to me, Ace."

"Goodbye, Logan."

* * *

He had to remind himself who he was around Rory. Constantly he heard Hemingway in his ear, telling him not to throw too much of himself into her. He'd never forgotten about her—that was impossible—but she'd been in a designated box for about four years since he'd seen her last. It was the Rory-shaped box at the back of his mind, and when he was away from her for so long, it was easy to keep her there.

To say he hadn't moved on could be disputed, but to say he hadn't tried would be false through and through. He'd had his fair share of one-night stands and week or month-long flings, and there had even been a few serious relationships hidden in there. Two had cheated on him and ended up leaving him for the other person, and the third . . . the third was the one he had ended. It had gone on so long, and he couldn't see a future for them when she could. She saw picket fences and upstate New York. He hadn't seen anything. Maybe he hadn't wanted to or hadn't tried hard enough but indifference wasn't a sure sign of the future, so he left.

"What am I doing?"

 _I'm not playing golden retriever hoping someday, she'll turn around and fall in my arms._

His own words came crashing back over him.

"Hey Caesar, I'll be back," Jess started walking towards the door, clapping his hand on the elder man's shoulder for a moment, "don't burn down the diner while I'm gone."

It was as if he was on auto-pilot as if all he had done was blinked and he was in front of Rory, in front of the Gilmore house. For a few seconds, he stood at the mailbox, far enough to turn and leave and she would be none the wiser.

"Jess."

"Rory."

He started walking towards her, one hand in his jacket pocket, the other tucking hair behind his ear.

"What are you-" she stood up to greet him. He kissed her. One hand on her jawline, the other running down her arm to her hand. Her other hand grabbed his arm and pulled him tighter.

To say he hadn't moved on, in actuality, probably couldn't be disputed. Because he had moved on, but Rory was like an eternal flame that he would keep coming back to as long as he could.

 _Come to New York with me. Go back with me. Be_ _with me._

"Can I go to New York with you?"

* * *

 **A/N:** ** **(I'm super tired, so this is not going to be a very chatty note.)** Wow. So a lot just happened. I wasn't planning on putting it all in one chapter initially, but then it just kind of _happened._ I spent a good day not writing but just figuring out what I wanted to happen, and I had a rough idea. When I started writing, it all just kind of came out. So, if it feels rushed, that's why. Anyway, I hope y'all liked this chapter. ****If you liked it, tell me why! If you didn't tell me that too!**

 **Review, favorite, and follow if you want to follow this story and see what happens next.**

 **Talk to you soon!**

 **x Star**


	5. No-Good Miscreant

FIVE

The next few days were almost blissful, Rory mostly stayed in the house, writing, and Jess was mostly at the diner, working, but the hours between work and sleep were an impenetrable bubble. They ate, they read, they watched, they kissed. They waited, waited for the end to come because as soon as the whirlwind that is Lorelai Gilmore came back to Stars Hollow, it would be over. For a while at least.

When Rory wasn't writing, she was getting things ready. It only took a few days to round up all the loose ends, all except one. She'd told Taylor she was quitting the paper on Friday so that it wouldn't be discussed at a town meeting she would be present for. She'd moved the few things that had actually been moved out of boxes back into them and into the back of Jess's car, now glad that she had never really bothered to unpack, glad that the voice that had said _I'm not back_ had actually been right.

Somehow, she had to tell her mom. Tell her mother, who had just learned that she was going to be a grandmother, that she was leaving again, moving to New York without so much as a dollar to her name.

"Hey," Jess sat down on the coffee table across from Rory. "You ready for tonight?" He lightly knocked a fist against her knee and then started tracing a design against the spot.

Rory gave a small smile and moved the mug in her hand from one to the other. Decaf coffee was horrible and all of it should immediately be burned, but Jess had gone to the effort of bringing her some and even making it this morning. Either way, it was still horrible. Just having to finish this cup of decaf might be enough to put her off it for the next seven months.

"It's that bad?"

"No, it's-"

"You hate it."

"It's the worst thing I've ever had." She looked up at Jess, leaned forward to be a little closer to him. "It won't be easy. She's going to be really upset and hurt, but it has to happen. She and everyone else in this town still think you're a no-good miscreant."

"I am a no-good miscreant," Jess said, stilling his hand and laying it over hers, "just look at how my presence has made you decide to up and move away from your mother. She'll find a way to blame it on me, just wait." He reached up one of his hands and traced her jawline from her ear to her chin when he tilted it up towards him. "I've got to go to the diner. Luke's gonna stop by there first, so you should have your mom to yourself for a bit if that makes it easier."

She nodded as much as she could and leaned forward to kiss him. "It does, thank you. See you tonight." Jess pulled her back for another kiss and then took off to the diner.

* * *

"Mom, I'm going to New York. No. Mom, I was . . . doing a lot of thinking while you were gone, and I really want to start over . . . on my own. No, that's horrible too. I could start by explaining the situation with the Gazette and how Jess—no, no that's a bad idea. I shouldn't start with Jess. So, I was thinking that I wanted to raise a child in a place that wasn't toxic for the brain and filled with small town 'Kill the Beast!' mentality," Rory sunk to a chair with a sigh. "I can't do this."

With a glance up and through the window, she saw Luke and her mother walking towards the house.

"Shit," Rory ducked and ran as quickly as she could through to the kitchen. "They're home early." She opened the back door before she heard the front door open followed immediately by calls of her name. The front door closed, and Rory quietly closed the door behind her and ducked towards the back of the house to the diner.

Tk transitional scene about Rory walking to and into the diner

"Jess, Jess, they're home, they're here. Mom and Luke, they're back, they're early. I can't take them on alone when they're together." Jess turned from putting the coffee pot back on the burner. Rory ran around the counter, breathing heavily; Jess put his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to calm her. "Mom and Luke walked into the house when I was trying to figure out what to say to Mom, and I got out before they could see me but they're there together and I can't do it alone."

He shook his head, shouted to Caesar in the back, and started walking towards the door, nodding for Rory to follow him. As soon as they were out the door, Jess swung his arm around Rory's shoulder, and she leaned her head onto his shoulder.

"So how are we gonna do this?"

Her head lifted off his shoulder, "I don't think we'll have to," and she pointed across the street towards the high school, where Luke and Lorelai were walking—now stopped—hand in hand. Jess's head dropped and then rolled back up, "C'mon, it would've happened eventually."

"Yeah, I just didn't want it to happen like this." Jess leaned to peck her temple then unwrapped his arm from around Rory, stuffing both into his pockets. "Let the games begin."

Rory kept her gaze on her feet until the last moment, when they stopped walking, and _yep, there it is._ The disappointment, the shame, the judgement: the withering stare of Lorelai Gilmore. Most of it wasn't even directed at her; most of it was directed at Jess.

"How dare you. You found the weak antelope of the pack and when it was alone and fragile, you attacked. You attacked the baby antelope," Lorelai started shouting at Jess, "what kind of person attacks the baby antelope?"

"I am not a baby antelope," Rory tried to interject, but Lorelai continued to talk over her.

"Lorelai, please," Luke tried to calm her as well, but the cries of the wounded could not be overtaken.

"How are you so calm about this?" she rounded on Luke.

Tired of how her mother was acting, she just shouted, "Stop!" Lorelai quit talking and turned to her daughter with a broken gaze. "Please, just stop. This was no one's decision but mine. I couldn't stand the idea of staying and working at the Gazette until I die like Bernie. I can't be Bernie. There's so much more to do and see and . . . and I want every possibility for my child. I can't do that in a fishbowl."

Lorelai let out a breath and took her daughter's hands, tears welling up in her eyes. "So where are you gonna go?"

"New York. I talked Taylor into back-paying me for all the time I was working at the Gazette, so I'll have some savings. It's not far, so I can visit or you can visit," she squeezed her mom's hands, "This isn't the end, Mom. This is just _right_ for right now. It just . . . it fits." She was pulled into her mother's embrace.

 _I love you._

 _I love you too._

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 ** _A/N:_ Hope you all enjoyed. This one's a little bit shorter, and it's been a while since I've posted. I'm halfway through finals, and I'm completely and utterly drained. See you after Tuesday.  
**

 **Talk to you soon!**

 **x Star**


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